Due North · the rate cut that skips your rental

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The Florida Landlord Brief — a weekly read on Florida rentals, from True North Managed · Orlando & Tampa.

Hi there — and welcome to the very first Due North. I'll keep these short: once a week, the one thing worth your attention as a Florida rental owner, and what I'd actually do about it. Let's get into it.

You might've seen back in January that Citizens cut its insurance rates. Good news — if you live in the home. The part the headline left out is that the cut only applies to homesteads, the owner-occupied policies. Rentals usually sit in a different bucket, commercial residential, and that one didn't get a cut — it went up. As of July 1, the main rate is up around 7%, and the wind portion closer to 14% — I broke the increases down by policy type, condo units included, and the wind line is the piece that bites hardest near the coast. It's an easy thing to miss: you read "rates dropped," figure you're covered, and the bigger number just turns up at renewal.

So here's what I'd actually do this week: reach out to your insurance agent and ask where your policy sits. One email does it — is my policy personal or commercial residential, and what's my change on July 1? You don't need your paperwork in front of you to ask. If it's a condo you rent out, ask two more while you're at it: what the association's master policy did, and whether your loss-assessment coverage is enough, because Florida's $2,000 minimum usually isn't on a rental. Your agent can pull the exact numbers for your property in a couple of minutes — far better than guessing from a headline. And if you've already gotten a non-renewal letter, that's a different scramble — here's the calmer way through it.

On the market: we're halfway through the year, and Orlando's holding up a bit better than Tampa. Orlando's around 94.5% occupancy with rents off roughly 3% from last year, and its building boom is finally slowing down. Tampa's still in the thick of its — something like 7,500 new apartments this year against maybe 6,100 the market can absorb — so there's real competition for tenants right now. If you own in Tampa, price it right the first time; going toe-to-toe with a brand-new building down the block rarely ends well. One quiet thing helping both metros: with the 30-year mortgage still around 6.5%, plenty of would-be buyers are renting instead, which keeps a floor under demand even with all that new supply. I put the full Orlando-vs-Tampa picture in one place if you'd like the detail.

One last thing, since you're one of the first people here. Most Florida landlords assume there's a legal cap on what they can charge for an application fee. There isn't — the state sets no maximum. The catch is that the rules that do bind you are about how you describe and handle the fee — the screening disclosure and fair-housing side — not the dollar amount, and that's where a $50 fee turns into a real problem. I wrote the whole thing up; it goes live for everyone on July 1, but since you're here early, here's your copy now.

That's it for this week. If something about your rental's been on your mind — insurance, a difficult tenant, whether to hold or sell — just hit reply and ask. Happy to help where I can.

— The True North Team

General info for Florida rental owners — not legal, tax, or insurance advice.